Reverse enginneered MIDI implementation of Launchkey Mini MK3 by Novation

Intro

I've got Launchkey Mini to control my synthesizers and use it as controller for my VJ framework. Custom modes setup in Novation Components were useful but sometimes I needed more control over Launchkey Mini. Inspired by this article I tried to make something similar. Probably all of this knowledge is available in Launchkey Mini Programmer's Guide, but it's not publicly available.

Companion spreadsheet is available here. It contains data about selected midi messages, pad notes and colors. Especially colors sheet is useful because most of colors don't follow any pattern (or I couldn't see one).

In source code you can find example application and structs for midi communication. Everything is done in C++ using RtMidi but it can be easily applied to any language and API since it's compatible with MIDI standard. This project uses C3 as middle-C convention (explained here), same as Novation.

Good explanation of MIDI messages is available here. Message examples in this tutorial will look like this:

Channel	Status	Data1	Data2	Info
1	Note On	60(C3)	127	Send C3 note on with 127 velocity on channel 1

Compilation

Standard CMake compilation.

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make

Program usage

This program is focused purely on DAW mode. When you launch example app you will be asked to select MIDI port of Launchkey Mini MK3. Choose Launchkey Mini MK3 MIDI 2 for both input and output. This port is responsible for passing data in so-called DAW mode. If you need midi data from piano keys, custom mode knobs and pads, pitch bend and modulation then you should connect to port Launchkey Mini MK3 MIDI 1, not supported by this example code.

After that you will be asked to pick one of following modes:

Color checker - simple mode which changes colors of all pads in session mode. You can change colors by pressing up and down arrow on Launchkey Mini.
Mario - simple animation showing Mario
Disco - each pad has randomized color from spectrum, changing every few seconds
Touch - randomized color each time you press a pad. You can change color mode by pressing up and down arrows, choosing normal, flashing or pulsing color. Press play button on Launchkey to safely exit application.

MIDI implementation

DAW mode

First after opening midi port you have to enter DAW mode to gain more control over Launchkey Mini. This is done by sending Note On status on channel 16, note C-1 and velocity 127. If you want to exit DAW mode (probably on application quit) you have to send the same message but with 0 velocity.

Channel	Status	Data1	Data2	Info
16	Note On	12(C-1)	127	Enter DAW mode
16	Note On	12(C-1)	0	Exit DAW mode

Buttons

Some special buttons send CC messages which we can handle by getting following messages:

Channel	Status	Data1	Data2	Info
1	CC	104(G#6)	127/0	Up button press/release
1	CC	105(A6)	127/0	Down button press/release
1	CC	108(C7)	127/0	Shift button press/release
16	CC	103(G6)	127/0	Left button press/release
16	CC	102(F#6)	127/0	Right button press/release
16	CC	115(G7)	127/0	Play button press/release
16	CC	117(A7)	127/0	Record button press/release

Shift + Octave buttons sends Program Change message

Channel	Status	Data1	Info
1	Program Change	n	Sends program number 'n'

Pad modes

You can change pad mode by sending CC message on channel 16. It's the same thing as changing modes by holding shift and choosing mode with orange pads.

edit 27.09.2021: as found by riban-bw there are few more undocumented modes.

Modes 6-8 replace Custom mode as found here until you reboot Launchkey Mini MK3.

Channel	Status	Data1	Data2	Info
16	CC	3(D#-2)	1	Drum pad mode
16	CC	3(D#-2)	2	Session pad mode
16	CC	3(D#-2)	5	Custom pad mode
16	CC	3(D#-2)	6	Drum 2 pad mode
16	CC	3(D#-2)	7	Toggle pad mode
16	CC	3(D#-2)	8	Program Change pad mode

Device should reply with the same message. Keep in mind that custom mode requires listening on Launchkey Mini MK3 MIDI 1 port. Session mode pads send note data on channel 1. Drum mode pads send note data on channel 10.

Knob modes

You can change knob mode by sending CC message on channel 16. It's the same thing as changing modes by holding shift and choosing mode with cyan pads.

Channel	Status	Data1	Data2	Info
16	CC	9(A-2)	1	Device knob mode
16	CC	9(A-2)	2	Volume knob mode
16	CC	9(A-2)	3	Pan knob mode
16	CC	9(A-2)	4	Sends A knob mode
16	CC	9(A-2)	5	Sends B knob mode
16	CC	9(A-2)	6	Custom knob mode

Device should reply with the same message. Keep in mind that custom mode requires listening on Launchkey Mini MK3 MIDI 1 port. Besides custom mode, other knob modes will always send CC message on channel 16, with data1 as knob number 21-28 (from left to right) and data2 as knob value (0-127).

Color time!

Coloring pads was the most time consuming thing. There are 128 colors available and writing down all of them wasn't easy. Colors 0-59 follow easy pattern, but the rest looks randomized. You can choose color mode by sending message to different channels.

Channels 1, 2, 3 are used in session mode, for solid, flashing and pulsing pad respectively.

Channels 10, 11, 12 are used in drum mode, for solid, flashing and pulsing pad respectively.

Examples:

Channel	Status	Data1	Data2	Info
1	Note On	96(C6)	9	Color top-left pad with solid orange in session mode
2	Note On	96(C6)	21	Color top-left pad with flashing green in session mode
3	Note On	103(G6)	49	Color top-right pad with pulsing purple in session mode
10	Note On	96(C6)	9	Color top-left pad with solid orange in drum mode
11	Note On	96(C6)	9	Color top-left pad with flashing orange in drum mode
12	Note On	96(C6)	9	Color top-left pad with pulsing orange in drum mode

Bonus: flashing pad toggles between previous color and current (flashing) color. This way you can send solid color followed by flashing color to flash between two different colors e.g. green/red/green/red... If you want to flash between disabled and color led you have to send black (0) solid color first.

Other buttons (by riban-bw)

You can color both Up and Down buttons by sending CC message on channel 1, 2, 3 (same as session color modes). Also Play and Record buttons react to these color modes but only white color is supported.

Examples:

Channel	Status	Data1	Data2	Info
1	CC	104(G#6)	9	Color Up pad with solid orange color
2	CC	105(A6)	21	Color Down pad with flashing green color
3	CC	105(A6)	49	Color Down pad with pulsing purple color
1	CC	115(G7)	127	Play button with solid white
2	CC	117(G7)	127	Record button with flashing white
3	CC	115(G7)	127	Play button with pulsing white

You can change brightness of Up, Down, Play, Pause buttons by sending CC message on channel 16. Possible brightness values: 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%

Examples:

Channel	Status	Data1	Data2	Info
16	CC	104(G#6)	32	Up pad with 25% brightness
16	CC	105(A6)	48	Down pad with 50% brightness
16	CC	115(G7)	64	Play button with 75% brightness
16	CC	117(A7)	96	Record button with 100% brightness

Compilation error: field ‘CC’ has incomplete type

Hi, cool work!

When I first was trying to build the project I got the following compilation error:

[ 25%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/main.dir/src/application.cpp.o
In file included from /home/alserg/src/LaunchkeyMiniMK3/inc/application.hpp:3,
                 from /home/alserg/src/LaunchkeyMiniMK3/src/application.cpp:1:
/home/alserg/src/LaunchkeyMiniMK3/inc/midi.hpp:365:58: error: field ‘CC’ has incomplete type ‘std::array<std::array<unsigned char, 120>, 16>’
  365 |         std::array<std::array<unsigned char, 120>, 16>   CC =   {};
      |                                                          ^~
In file included from /usr/include/c++/12/bits/unique_ptr.h:36,
                 from /usr/include/c++/12/memory:76,
                 from /home/alserg/src/LaunchkeyMiniMK3/inc/midi.hpp:4:
/usr/include/c++/12/tuple:1595:45: note: declaration of ‘struct std::array<std::array<unsigned char, 120>, 16>’
 1595 |   template<typename _Tp, size_t _Nm> struct array;
      |                                             ^~~~~
/home/alserg/src/LaunchkeyMiniMK3/src/application.cpp: In member function ‘void Application::Mario()’:
/home/alserg/src/LaunchkeyMiniMK3/src/application.cpp:105:54: error: variable ‘const std::array<std::array<int, 16>, 16> mario’ has initializer but incomplete type
  105 |     static const std::array<std::array<int, 16>, 16> mario {{
      |                                                      ^~~~~
/home/alserg/src/LaunchkeyMiniMK3/src/application.cpp: In member function ‘void Application::Disco()’:
/home/alserg/src/LaunchkeyMiniMK3/src/application.cpp:153:32: error: aggregate ‘std::array<int, 16> timers’ has incomplete type and cannot be defined
  153 |     static std::array<int, 16> timers;
      |                                ^~~~~~
make[2]: *** [CMakeFiles/main.dir/build.make:76: CMakeFiles/main.dir/src/application.cpp.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:83: CMakeFiles/main.dir/all] Error 2
make: *** [Makefile:91: all] Error 2

Adding #include <array> explicitly solved the issue for me (not sure, how otherwise <array> is supposed to be included):

diff --git a/inc/midi.hpp b/inc/midi.hpp
index 41a9d56..fd6be00 100644
--- a/inc/midi.hpp
+++ b/inc/midi.hpp
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 #include <optional>
 #include <memory>
+#include <array>
 
 #include <rtmidi/RtMidi.h>
 
diff --git a/src/application.cpp b/src/application.cpp
index 94e69bd..03b0070 100644
--- a/src/application.cpp
+++ b/src/application.cpp
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 #include <application.hpp>
+#include <array>
 
 #include <unistd.h>

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launchkeyminimk3's Introduction

Reverse enginneered MIDI implementation of Launchkey Mini MK3 by Novation

Intro

Compilation

Program usage

MIDI implementation

DAW mode

Buttons

Pad modes

Knob modes

Color time!

Other buttons (by riban-bw)

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